CLAN LINE: ‘ACE’ DATE GOES BACK, BUT ‘GOLDEN ARROW’ ADDED
Another hotly anticipated engine should be back within weeks of these words being written: Clan Line. In fact, if all had worked out as intended, the ‘Merchant Navy’ would already be back on the main line - but now May 27’s planned ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ has been put back to September. “It’s actually coming together pretty quickly… it’s a shame we’re not operational already, because the original plan was eminently achievable, but such is the nature of major restorations; unforeseen problems emerged that have added considerably to both timescales - and costs,” said the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society’s Paul Blowfield. That was in early May, just as No. 35028 moved for the first time since overhaul at LNWR Heritage in Crewe. “It has to await its ‘slot’ to get into the paint shop - where it will need to stay for three weeks. In the meantime, the weighing has been completed and the now-mandatory laser-profiling is booked for May 11. Thereafter, the only delay will literally be waiting for the paint to dry.” Trial runs were expected to be in mid-May, before the painting, with the ‘light’ runs overnight between Crewe and Chester, then ‘loaded’ trials over two days round the Crewe-Shrewsbury-Oxley Chord-Stafford circle. “As far as anyone can predict anything, we’re not anticipating any reason for not being operational by mid-June and hauling trains from July 1.” That means the rest of No. 35028’s ‘SR50’ set of anniversary runs recalling that final year of 1967 should proceed as planned. They include the ‘Bournemouth Belle’ (July 5) and the July 9 trip, which is now firmed up as Waterloo to Sherborne and Yeovil, returning via the ‘Pompey Direct’; also now in the diary is a ‘Golden Arrow’ Pullman trip on September 13 - starting, as you’d expect, from Victoria and heading round Kent (with a pause in Canterbury). That comes ten days before the re-dated ‘ACE’ from Waterloo to Exeter on September 23, a date chosen for availability of stock. All these trips can be booked with UK Railtours. In among all this is the ‘bread and butter’ of the Belmond Pullman trains, but there are also thoughts of a luncheon job with UKR on December 23. Looking ahead to next year, the shuttles we spoke of two issues ago are now confirmed as “Eastleigh-Salisbury-Yeovil”, provisionally on April 6-8.